Weekly round-up: Indian IF-route rebar, semis’ prices up, flats subdued

India’s induction route rebar prices rose in most markets by INR 200-1,300/t. Positive sentiments and rise in raw material prices led to improved demand and trading activity in finished long steel.

Semi-finished prices increased sharply. Billet offers rose in the range of INR 500-2,000/tonne across regions. Similarly, sponge iron prices were also up by INR 400-1,900/t w-o-w.

In flat steel, prices continued to fall. Sentiments were low with the mills reducing their export offers to entice overseas buyers.

Iron ore and pellets

• NMDC slashed iron ore prices by INR 400/t for fines and INR 1,200-1,300/t for lumps from 8 Dec’21 for auction from its Karnataka mines.
• SteelMint’s bi-weekly domestic pellet (Fe 63%) index, PELLEX, stands at INR 9,950/tonne (t) DAP Raipur on 10 Dec’21, up by around INR 450/t against the last assessment on 7 Dec’21. Confirmed deals for around 75,000 t were reported at around INR 9,650-10,000/t DAP Raipur in this publishing window. Central India-based pellet makers increased offers by around INR 400-500/t towards the middle of this week.
• Bids for low-grade iron ore fines from India continued to remain low despite the global price rally. SteelMint’s weekly export index for low-grade Indian iron ore fines (Fe 57%) inched up $1/t to $30/t FOB east coast India, stable w-o-w.
• Pellet export trade from India regained momentum this week after global iron ore prices rallied, which turned traders active in taking positions for seaborne cargoes. SteelMint confirmed four export deals from India this week. Steelmint’s India pellet export index (Fe 64%, 3% Al, FOB east coast) remained range-bound on a w-o-w basis at $126/t.

Coal

• Australian coking coal export prices increased this week on continuous rainfall and flooding in eastern Australia.
• The benchmark premium low-vol grade jumped by 7% w-o-w on FOB basis amid deteriorating weather conditions in Australia’s main coking coal production belt in Queensland.
• Earlier, however, seaborne coking coal prices had fallen by 15% in the week-ago period.
• Active trading interest was observed for premium mid-volatile coking coals but deals were not heard due to a bid-offer mismatch of around $20/t, as per reports.
• Latest prices for the premium HCC grade are assessed at around $341/tonne (t) FOB Australia, $347/t CNF China and $366/t CNF India.
• South African RB2 portside prices rose slightly by INR 200/t to INR 10,400/t amid a slight rise in imported prices.
• South African RB1 prices rose by $2/t to $135/t due to limited stock at RBCT port. Discounts for RB2 and RB3 were assessed at $13/t and $25/t respectively.

Ferous scrap

The global downtrend had put Indian imported scrap prices under pressure. As prices went down, imported scrap trade picked up slightly w-o-w. However, limited deals were heard to have been concluded at a lower price while inquiries were slightly better compared to those seen in the past couple of weeks.

Recent deals and offers

• In a fresh deal, a major steel mill has booked 700 tonnes (t) of shredded scrap in containers from USA at $540/t CFR Mundra basis. The cargo was booked for late-Jan’21 shipments.
• Fresh offers for UK-origin shredded are being quoted at $545-550/t CFR levels, down by $5/t w-o-w.
• Another deal for around 3,000 t of HMS (auto parts) was heard to have been concluded by the western India-based units. However, the deal price could not be confirmed till the time of publishing this report.
  UAE-origin HMS 1 in containers is being offered at $470-475/t CFR Nhava Sheva.

Ferro alloys

Low demand and falling steel prices exerted pressure on ferro alloys producers to keep the ferro alloys prices at lower levels. Manganese alloys and ferro silicon prices dropped. However, only ferro chrome prices inched up this week in recent deals.

• Indian silico manganese prices for 60-14 grades dropped on a weekly basis due to lesser demand. The current market prices are hovering at around INR 91,000- 92,125/t exw-Raipur and Durgapur.
• Ferro manganese prices in India remained under pressure with limited demand. According to SteelMint’s assessment on 10 Dec’21, ferro manganese prices are at INR 100,000/t exw-Raipur and Durgapur.
• Indian ferro chrome prices inched up w-o-w owing to good domestic demand. The current price of ferro chrome is hovering at around INR 110,250/t exw- Jajpur.
• Indian ferro silicon prices decreased this week owing to lesser demand and sufficient inventory held by Bhutanese smelters. Currently, ferro silicon prices are hovering at around INR 180,000-180,400/t exw- from both Guwahati and Bhutan.

Semi-finished

Indian semi-finished steel prices increased sharply as per SteelMint’s assessment, while billet offers rose in the range of INR 500-2,000/tonne across regions with a major rise of INR 2,000/t reported in Chennai, southern India. Similarly, sponge iron prices also inclined by INR 400-1,900/t on a weekly basis except in Ramgarh where sponge prices fell by INR 500-600/t.

• An Indian steel mill booked around 30,000 t of steel grade pig iron for exports at around $490/t FOB, sources informed SteelMint.
• Induction grade billet export offers were reported at around $540-545/t exw-Durgapur, equivalent to $565-570/t CPT Nepal. The offers were firm on w-o-w basis.
• Around 8,000-10,000 tonnes of sponge iron export deals were reported to Nepal, in which the latest deal, for 100% lumps, was closed at around $410/t, exw-eastern India, equivalent to $435/t CPT Nepal.
• SAIL held an auction for 9,500 t of basic grade pig iron on 9 Dec’21 from the Rourkela Steel Plant and the entire quantity was booked at a weighted average price of INR 36,150/t exw.
• Vizag Steel conducted an auction for 1,000 t of basic grade pig iron on 8 Dec’21 and the entire quantity was booked at a weighted average price of INR 37,000/t exw.
• Tata Metaliks reduced basic grade pig iron prices by INR 1,500/t ($20/t) to INR 39,700/t. Prices are exw-Kharagpur and applicable for the Kolkata and Howrah markets.
• Vedanta Limited reduced foundry grade pig iron offers by INR 750/t ($10/t). The current offer stands at INR 47,250/t DAP Ahmedabad, SteelMint gathered from sources.

Finished longs

India’s induction route finished long steel manufacturers, in this week, observed improved trade enquiries and transactions in the spot market along with moderate future booking orders in hand. On a weekly basis, rebar prices in most of the markets increased by INR 200-1,300/t, while in others these marginally reduced by up to INR 200/t w-o-w, owing to higher price parity as compared to other competitive markets. Positive sentiments in the market and rise in raw material prices led to the improved demand and trading activity in finished long steel.

• The trade reference price of Fe 500 grade rebar steel manufactured via the IF route for 10-25 mm size is assessed at INR 45,000-45,300/t exw-Raipur, and INR 47,700-48,000/t exw-Jalna.
• Trade discounts given by Raipur-based heavy structural steel manufacturers are in the range of INR 1,500-1,700/t and trade reference prices of 200 mm angles stood at INR 50,600-50,900/t exw-Raipur.
• Trade discounts given by Raipur-based wire rod suppliers are hovering around INR 1,200-1,400/t and trade reference prices are at INR 45,200-45,400/t exw-Raipur, and at INR 45,000-45,200/t exw-Durgapur, for size 5.5 mm.

Finished flats

• Domestic market prices continued to fall across the flat steel product categories. Sellers reduced prices to boost sales, while the end-buyers stuck to need-based procurements in anticipation of further decline in prices.
• Market sentiments have also taken a hit with the mills reducing their export offers to entice overseas buyers. SteelMint’s India HRC (SAE 1006) export index fell by $10/t w-o-w to $790/t FOB east coast. The scenario in Vietnam remained the same, with buyers preferring domestic products over imported ones and expecting Formosa and Hoa Phat to announce HRC prices for Feb’22 delivery in the upcoming week. Indian mills were heard offering HRCs (SAE1006) for export at $815-825/t CFR Vietnam against $830-850/t CFR a week back.